Natasha Lomas
Writer
The Latest from Natasha Lomas
Valve and five PC games publishers fined $9.4M for illegal geo-blocking
A four-year antitrust investigation into PC games geo-blocking in the European Union by distribution platform Valve and five games publishers has led to fines totalling €7.8 million (~$9.4M) after t
Landbot closes $8M Series A for its ‘no code’ chatbot builder
Barcelona-based Landbot, a ‘no-code’ chatbot builder, has bagged a $8M Series A led by the Spanish-Israeli VC firm Swanlaab, alongside support from Spain’s innovation-focused public
Europe is working on a common framework for ‘vaccine passports’
The European Union is preparing the ground for vaccine passports. A common approach for mutual recognition of vaccination documentation is of the “utmost importance,” the commission said t
Spain’s Glovo inks real estate tie-up to add more dark stores for speedy urban delivery
Spain’s Glovo, an on-demand delivery app, has announced a strategic partnership with Swiss-based real estate firm, Stoneweg. The deal will see the latter invest €100 million in building and re
Cryptocat author gets insanely fast backing to build P2P tech for social media
The idea for Capsule started with a tweet about reinventing social media. A day later cryptography researcher, Nadim Kobeissi — best known for authoring the open-source E2E-encrypted desktop cha
WhatsApp-Facebook data-sharing transparency under review by EU DPAs after Ireland sends draft decision
A long-running investigation in the European Union focused on the transparency of data-sharing between Facebook and WhatsApp has taken the first major step toward a resolution. Ireland’s Data Pr
EMA warns over doctored COVID-19 vaccine data hacked and leaked online
The European Medical Agency (EMA) has warned that information on COVID-19-related medicines and vaccines, which was stolen in a cyberattack last December and leaked online earlier this week, includes
How Twitter is handling the 2021 US presidential transition
Twitter has set out its plans for US Inauguration Day 2021, next Wednesday, January 20, when president-elect Joe Biden will be sworn into office as the 46th US president and vice president-elect Kamal
Confusion over WhatsApp’s new T&Cs triggers privacy warning from Italy
Confusion over an update to Facebook-owned chat platform WhatsApp’s terms and conditions has triggered an intervention by Italy’s data protection agency. The Italian GPDP said today it has
E2E encrypted email providers also see sign-ups surge as chat app users flock to Signal and Telegram in search of privacy
Privacy concerns that have been driving app users to alternative chat apps like Signal and Telegram in recent weeks, since Facebook-owned WhatsApp announced a T&Cs change, appear to also be genera
Can’t figure out how to end your Amazon Prime sub? These complaints could help…
Amazon’s use of dark patterns that add friction to the process of terminating a Prime subscription is being targeted by 16 consumer rights groups in Europe and the US which are taking coordinate
Flo gets FTC slap for sharing user data when it promised privacy
The FTC has reached a settlement with Flo, a period and fertility tracking app with 100 million+ users, over allegations it shared users’ health data with third-party app analytics and marketing
Facebook’s EU-US data transfers face their final countdown
Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) has agreed to swiftly finalize a long-standing complaint against Facebook’s international data transfers which could force the tech giant to susp
YouTube puts a temporary freeze on uploads to Trump’s channel
YouTube has been the slowest of the big social media platforms to react to the threat of letting president Trump continue to use its platform as a megaphone to whip up insurrection in the wake of the
Business trip platform TravelPerk buys YC-backed rival NexTravel
Barcelona-based TravelPerk has scooped up US-based rival NexTravel as the pandemic drives consolidation in one of the sector’s hardest hit by COVID-19. It’s not disclosing how much it̵
FTC settlement with Ever orders data and AIs deleted after facial recognition pivot
The maker of a defunct cloud photo storage app that pivoted to selling facial recognition services has been ordered to delete user data and any algorithms trained on it, under the terms of an FTC sett
Europe seizes on social media’s purging of Trump to bang the drum for regulation
Big tech’s decision to pull the plug on president Donald Trump’s presence on their platforms, following his supporters’ attack on the US capital last week, has been seized on in Euro
You’ll never believe what this email thread says about the ad-funded ‘open’ web
Among a number of claims on U.K. adtech lobby group MOW’s website is the canonical biggie that “Advertising funds the open web.” This coalition of “marketers,” whose memb
Google’s plan to replace tracking cookies goes under UK antitrust probe
Google’s plan to end support for third-party cookies in the Chrome browser and its Chromium engine is under investigation by the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). The antitru
Jobandtalent tops up with $108M for its ‘workforce as a service’ platform
Madrid-based Jobandtalent, a digital temp staffing agency that operates a dual-sided platform that connects temp workers with employers needing regular casual labor in sectors like transport and logis